Featured Domains

The .sucks top level domain name has been slow to take off, rendering its alleged “extortion” strategy wounded. But this might change next month.

.Sucks registry Vox Populi will begin a rebate program in January that will temporarily drop the wholesale price of .sucks domains to $1.99 ($19.99 for premiums). That’s a 99% rebate.

This is sure to stoke new .sucks registrations, including of popular brands. But brand holders would be wise to think twice before filing a UDRP on the names. The discounts only apply to first-year registrations, so cybersquatters will have to pay the regular (and prohibitive) prices when it comes time to renew a year later. I suspect most will let the domains drop unless there’s a renewal promotion a year from now.

Vox Populi says the intent of the program is “to stimulate an emerging consumer and advertising market for the dotSucks platform.”

Vox Populi helped This.sucks get off the ground. Is there more to it than that?

Site design brought to you by Vox Populi.

A couple weeks ago, a new company popped up on the scene called This.Sucks.

The business model is remarkably similar to one that .Sucks registry Vox Populi hoped would be created, offering .sucks domain names to users at a reduced annual price (many for free) in return for using a specialized platform.

It’s so similar, in fact, that some have questioned if Vox Populi is behind This.sucks.

Controversial new top level domain name registry wants to trademark “.sucks”.

Vox Populi, the domain name registry for .Sucks, has applied for the trademark “.Sucks” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office.

The goods and services for the mark are “Domain name registration services; registration of domain names for identification of users on a global computer network.”

The USPTO does not grant trademarks for top level domain names, so I’m not sure what Vox Populi hopes to accomplish with this application.

Vox Populi also recently applied for a trademark for “How Do You Really Feel?”

Scripps Networks Interactive, through its top level domain name company Lifestyle Domain Holdings, recently applied for three trademarks related to its new top level domains: Living, Lifesytle and Vana.